12/12/2021
NEWS STORY
Mercedes has issued two protests following today's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, both citing the event’s controversial restart.
The first protest is against Max Verstappen, accusing the Dutchman of a breach of Article 48.8 of the 2021 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations, which states that "no driver may overtake another car on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3) for the first time after the safety car has returned to the pits."
The safety car was deployed in the wake of Nicholas Latifi's crash, and remained in place for several laps.
As the laps counted down race control first deemed that "lapped cars will not be allowed to overtake", before declaring that "lapped cars 4 (Norris), 14, 31, 16 and 5 to overtake safety car".
These were the cars separating Hamilton and Verstappen behind the safety car, and as the last of them passed the safety car, just before it was withdrawn, Verstappen was alongside the Mercedes as early as Turn 12.
Ahead of the restart, Verstappen, who, following the initial deployment of the safety car pitted for softs, continued alongside Hamilton, and though unable to pass the Mercedes i Turn 1 was able to finally pass at Turn 5.
A second protest from the German team is based on Article 48.12, which states that "any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car."
This relates to the fact that while Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel were instructed to pass the safety car ahead of the restart, those cars separating the two title protagonists, no such instructions were given to Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher. Indeed, Mercedes appears to feel that waiting for those last three cars to pass the safety car might have meant the race not actually restarting.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Yas Marina, here.